Awake

Marian's POV

Everything was heavy.

My body. My thoughts. The air itself.

I was sinking, trapped beneath layers of exhaustion and something darker, something suffocating. It felt like I had been floating in a void for an eternity, tethered only by a distant warmth.

A voice.

Aiden.

His voice was the only thing that reached me through the haze, a steady thread pulling me back toward consciousness. I followed it blindly, clawing my way through the weight pressing me down.

Then, finally—light.

It was faint at first, a flickering presence behind my closed lids. Then came the feeling—soft sheets, the dull ache in my limbs, the warmth of a hand wrapped around mine.

I knew that hand.

Familiar. Firm. Steady.

Aiden.

The darkness wavered, cracked.